"Hey, are you for real, Jelani? Getting a bronze trophy from your first championship? That is so not you!"
Danika sat with her legs crossed, and her arms crossed together near the bottom of her stomach. Her eyes stared intensely at her friend.
"It is a loss that I long for to be erased from my memory," Jelani dramatically uttered. "But I really want to win this year's championship so I can forget the first year ever!"
"I feel you, Jelly. Honest to God, feel you," Danika said to her.
"Um, please don't call me that nickname; it's kind of weird to be called that, like Tar and Nals."
"Huh, you mean what was wrong with 'Jelly'?" Danika asked. "Now that you mentioned it, saying it reminds me of one of those green lime gelatin cube snacks that I liked before."
"Do you really hate nicknames that much, Jelani?" Tara innocently asked, wearing her striped pajamas. "I think the nicknames Danika gave to us are not that bad... Right, Nallie."
Nallie Elfirm observed the twinkling night sky and the vivid designs of the lampposts placed next to the sidewalk as she sat on the comfort of Jelani's bed.
The view of the ocean's waves hitting the sandy beaches was also great to see. The moonlight bounced off the reflection of the water. The cloudy sky's fluff was visible enough to appear as dark splotches in the background.
If only she had brought her compact camera with her to capture the graceful glow of the empty environment.
The large and spaced-out room was filled with four large sleeping bags for Nallie's friends. There was also an unfinished tent that the girls were too lazy to properly fix, so they just left it there as it is.
She and her group of friends were currently staying for a sleepover at Jelani's house to check out the new pool light installation that changed colors every ten minutes. And by house... it was actually a three-story beachfront villa.
Jelani's family's own plot of land and everything. The whole home definitely cost more to maintain than the combined mortgage cost total of the homes of Nallie, Tara, and Danika.
Nallie thought it was lucky for Jelani to always have a chance to quickly go outside of her home for fresh air while listening to the sound of the soothing sea.
If she were to live in this kind of place, then Nallie would go outside to absorb the comforting aura of the beach after being driven crazy by her brother, Nate.
"Hey? Green Country to Nallie, you in there?" Danika asked, knocking on her friend's forehead to check for anything inside. "You look dazed out like my older cousin after going to a bar."
Nallie's face sparked into unclouded reality instead of the stolen dream.
"Oh—what—huh, sorry?"
"What's wrong?" Tara worryingly asked. "Is something wrong? Nallie, do you need some water? Maybe some snacks? Is the air too stuffy in here, so you need to turn up the air conditioning unit in here? Is my whole person a bother to you? Oh, god, this whole building has too much space! I'm sorry, Jelani, but I'm gonna use your restroom for a bit!"
Tara quickly got up and left the room, noticeably breathing visible fumes of anxiety.
"Now what's up with her?" Danika said as she pointed to Tara's quick exit.
"I do hope Tara doesn't get lost; with my family's home intersecting so many hallways and rooms, it's not easy for visitors not used to the layout," Jelani mentioned. "But, Nallie, are you feeling a bit like Tara? Overwhelmed? Maybe another room would help you up..."
Nallie shrugged. "No, it-it's nothing like that really. It's just something is bothering me."
Danika got up with her crowbar, lightly smacking it on her palms.
"Something bothering you?! Like someone? If it's that stupid guy, Dawson, I'll make him pay, just like the fly that landed on Tara's pizza. For real, though, that guy always terrorizes everyone at school, sooooo uncool."
"No, no, it's nothing related to Dawson but someone else... someone related to me."
Danika dramatically gasped. "Y-you don't mean... a conflict brewing from a long-lost family member looking for revenge?!"
"You're talking about your brother, aren't you?" Jelani said.
"Yeah. There's just something wrong with the way he's acting that makes me feel something weird."
"Nals, I know Nate's your brother and stuff, but the way you always talk about him makes you look like you have some sort of weird-feeling complex over him," Nallie stated.
"Wh-what?! What the h-heck?" Nallie stammered, eyes wide open. "I'm telling you now, it is really nothing like that at all, come on, Danika!"
Danika whistled a short, awkward tune. "Oh, my bad then. I prolly reached somewhere else with what I said."
"Moving on with that," Jelani reassured the two. "What about your brother, Nallie?"
"This was from yesterday evening; that's where it started. When I first saw him come home after a while, he looked so depressed."
"Depressed?"
"Keep in mind that this was after he suddenly left me and my parents back at Morkiss Museum just so he could attend some club back at school that I didn't know he was in at all."
"I'm tellin' ya, he's kinda suspicious," Danika admitted.
"But then when he got home, his eyes were empty, like the spark of life and joy was somehow sucked out of him. When I tried to talk to him about how he was so late and made Mom and Dad worry, Nate just went straight to his room and shut the door. When I checked back, he was still lying face down on his bed, unmoving like a statue."
"Looks like he wanted proper rest..." Jelani mentioned.
"B-but it's not like I care about what he was doing or anything. He could just completely fail in life, and I won't even lift a finger to help since there is a chance that I would get dragged down with him. No, thank you on that one, please; I'll admit to that. Whatever it was, I'm sure he'll just eventually go over it like always, like it's not like it's the end of the world."
"It must have been hard for you and your brother," Jelani began, "especially with your brother, since what he experienced might be traumatic, like that time I got hit in the knee in my regional dodgeball tournament."
"Additionally, there is just no way I'm going to let Nate's acquired gloominess from somewhere take over my mind, because I got papers and presentations to do before the due date. It's not easy being a straight A student; one wrong move and you're right in the B grade lane."
"Anyway, moving on to other stuff... Jelani, your house here is so beautiful. I'm low-key kinda jealous about it," Danika stated.
"Yeah, it's cool and all, but what's really impressive is at Moderma. That's where success and ultimate life come into play."
Danika gasped again. "Moderma!?"
"Y'know, one of the only reasons my family got this home next to the beach was from my earnings from being a dodgeball league champion, but I always felt like there is something more to win, like I'm not satisfied with how my life is."
"Okay, now let us get to moving on to stuff that actually matters. So when is the time for it, Jelani?"
"Um... the time for what exactly?"
"Sooooooo..." Danika began. "When are we gonna take a swim in the pool? I always wanted to relax in the heated waters with a view of the beach in front of me. It's gonna be like a vacation!"
"Well, we could go there now if we want. Since the pool lights are now finished, all we need now is to push the button on the remote to activate it."
"Alright!" Danika beamed loudly, fist pumped and everything.
Then suddenly, Tara's brown backpack with laces fell down next to Jelani's duffel bag, where it tumbled down near the girls and revealed a creased corner of a scribbled, open notebook, alerting the girls nearby.
Jelani grabbed the bag to put it back in its proper place, but Danika immediately reached for the paper notebook inside and flipped through the pages.
"Hey, what is Tara hiding here... Is it homework? Oh... er...awkward, like, what is with these people's faces all over the paper?"
"Hey, come on, not cool to be looking at someone's private stuff," Jelani said to her.
"Hold on. I'll put it back after a few more pages, that's all."
Nallie was unsure of how she felt about Danika going through someone else's stuff, since she would very well be annoyed if that was her bag.
In the corner of her eye, Nallie spotted Tara at the door with her hands grasping her hair as she stood wide-eyed at what she was currently seeing.
"Oh, hey, Tar, took you long enough to be back, so like—"
"Aah!" Tara suddenly hiccuped fearfully. "Please, please, please, please don't look at it anymore! And also, I need to go to the bathroom for the second time!"
She took the notebook from Danika's hand and went away from the room.
Nallie sighed, wiped out by her friend's constant antics. Hanging out with these three did beat having to be with Nate or Luke and his Sharpstack Gang.
It was going to be a long night in someone else's luxurious house.